The Three Questions with Andy Richter - Haley Joel Osment

Episode Date: April 15, 2025

Actor Haley Joel Osment (Blink Twice) joins Andy Richter to discuss losing his home in the Altadena fires, the iconic "Walker, Texas Ranger" scene that made him a “Late Night with Conan O'Brien” legend, the realities of working as a child actor in films like “The Sixth Sense” and “Forrest Gump,” why he chose to step away from acting to attend college, his directorial ambitions, and much more.Do you want to talk to Andy live on SiriusXM’s Conan O’Brien Radio? Leave a voicemail at 855-266-2604 or fill out our Google Form at BIT.LY/CALLANDYRICHTER. Listen to "The Andy Richter Call-In Show" every Wednesday at 1pm Pacific on SiriusXM's Conan O'Brien Channel.

Hi everybody, welcome back to The Three Questions. I'm your host Andy Richter and today I'm talking to my pal Hayley Joel Osment. Hayley made his film debut as a child in Forrest Gump and he's been in countless projects since then. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his breakout role in The Sixth Sense. You've seen him in AI, Artificial Intelligence, The Entourage movie, Pay It Forward, and much more. And you can see Haley in the upcoming seasons of Wednesday and Poker Face and the recent film Blink Twice, which is now streaming. Also remember you can hear the Andy Richter Collins show every Wednesday live at 1pm on

Conan O'Brien Radio. If you want to join the conversation, you can find the number and submission form in the description of this episode. Now here's my conversation with Haley Joel Osment. Hi, Haley. Hello, Andy. So good to see you. Nice to see you as well. Do people often refer to you now because I imagine that you're Hailey Joel because of some sort of sag thing.

I think it was a second AD at some point who just put my full name on a call sheet. Yeah, yeah. It's been that way ever since. And now do you find people saying your full name all the time? Yeah. It's got to be weird. It's strange being a three-name person with the assassins and certain hyphenates, yeah.

The assassins, it is. If you hear three names on somebody, it's usually not good. No, no, thank you. Yeah, because they wanna make sure it's that, you know. Right, right, right, right. Lee Harvey Oswald, which my dad was bullied a bit in elementary school, Osment Oswald. Oh really?

The talk of the town in the 60s. Wow. Was he Lee Harvey Osment? Yeah, well yeah, that too. He had to change his name. The Harvey Osment booth. Yeah, yeah. Well, thank you so much.

We're in the studio and we had to wait for Conan O'Brien. Went 15 minutes late. We all have things to do. Oh yeah. You know, all he has to do is go host the Oscars again. Right, you just gotta get ready. Did they already announce it? Yeah, he did.

Yeah, they hired him again for it. I like when they do that. I mean, I'm just teasing because I was so happy and so proud. That was a great night. It was really, really a fun event, a great TV show. And I met so many people, including like the sheriff of Los Angeles County

at a fundraiser, say to me, why weren't you at the Oscars? And I'm like, why the fuck would I be at the Oscars? What do I have to do with any of that? It's like, I don't go with Conan to the dermatologist either, you know? I just did a Paley Fest panel on that stage at the Dolby, and I was sitting there going, wow,

this is where those two people tried to improvise a song from Amelia Perez on stage. It was right here. This is where a couple of years ago, remember that the people where there was like a dispute over who was going to get nominated for something, and one guy ran all the way onto the stage and tried to rush through a thank you speech before the other person could get there.

That was a... Was that when Michael Douglas misread something? No, that was Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway. Or Warren Beatty, that's what I mean. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. That was crazy. That was really crazy.

Misreading, oh. It's in that one person's hands. Only that one person has control over that. It was really nuts. Like with Steve Harvey and the Miss Universe thing. Oh yeah, yeah. Where he said the wrong person's name. Said the wrong name.

Steve Harvey. I love Steve Harvey. Well, hello. So good to see you. We, you and I know each other. You and I are friends. We have socialized. And I wanna get the sad stuff out of the way

right off the bat because you have invited me to your home and it no longer exists. I know. That's not the sad part. It's the not existing that's the sad part. Not me missing out on. I was driving away going, Andy, he'll never see.

He'll never see original boards. He blew it. He blew it. Yeah, we were gonna do something like a post golf thing before Rory moved out of state. Yeah, Rory Scovel. Yeah. Yeah, now I think his tour in Europe is called Should I Move

Here? So he might continue moving farther and farther away. Yeah. But yeah, we played golf at Matt Walsh's tournament up in Petaluma, not Petaluma, La Parisima in the little Dutch town from sideways. Solvang. Solvang.

Danish. Yeah, Danish. Yes. We're going to correct each other throughout this whole thing on things that no one cares about. Golf heads, no. Yeah. So, and we were talking before,

and your parents lost their home too, so that's really awful. It was just, it was something that I knew in the back of my mind could happen when you live up in the hills up there. We were all in Altadena, but seeing it happen was crazy. And the fact, it was much worse for me,

seeing my parents lose theirs, because I can bounce back and find a new way to live at this point, but doing it in your 60s and losing all of your family heritage and everything. You know, we saved some photos and did a quick run around the house, but a lot of stuff was lost. So it was very sad.

And, you know, the Altadena is such a special, beautiful place and, you know, 18 people died and it's a really sad thing but I've been optimistic in seeing how people are committed to rebuilding it and not letting it get overrun with developers and things like that people really want to preserve the original community there so yeah cuz I I live nearby I live in Pasadena about like five minutes drive away, which was so freaky the night of the fire where I was just like, it will never get down here.

But then when I saw what was burning, I was like, it wasn't supposed to get there either. It was like the town center. It was crazy how far out. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, and the fact like in the subsequent days, they evacuated all the way down around the Rose Bowl. Yeah.

It's just like any of that scrub land around there, they're like, yeah, I could all catch on fire. Yeah, I think that won't be the last time, sadly. This state is a disaster. The conservatives are right. This place is a hellscape. They're making it six Californias. Remember that guy?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, were you able to get some... I mean, you got your animals out, right? Dogs were out, yeah. And I was also very fortunate that I was in town because I had been gone for like four months before that. Oh, wow. And I just got back into town.

I was really looking forward to spending the top of the year like back in the house, working on some stuff. But yeah, there to help my... My mom was on a class trip with her sixth grade class. So she was gone. My sister lives in a different part of town. So her house was safe, but to be there, me able to help my dad and to get the animals out

and to take some frames off the wall and stuff like that. That was, I feel very fortunate for that. How long warning did you have? I was pretty close to where it started. So I was, I was shooting in Palmdale and I got home at like 6.30, left the dogs in the backyard, and somebody texted me and said,

there's a fire in Eden Canyon. And I looked up from the phone and saw smoke and like a glow, like right there. And it was, I went over to my parents' house, and then I drove back trying to do another trip. And even just like an hour or two later, it was already, like drove into a big wall of flames. There was no roadblock or anything. Yeah, quite

something to see that up close. Wow. Yeah. So did you get an official bug out or did you just somebody told you? The phone was ringing when I left the house with a robocall that was like evacuation but there no, I didn't get any texts or anything and I did not see any emergency vehicles or anything until I had left. So yeah, it was, it was very fast. Yeah. Is your sister sick of you? I think I'm right up to the edge of like, no matter how well we get along, it's still somebody in your house. Exactly. You can't just like kick back and not have someone there. So I'm taking the dogs up to Mammoth this week and I'm hopefully going to find a place to rent like in the next week or two so that I can give her some privacy again.

Yeah, yeah. Because she had all of us there for the first couple of weeks, which is a lot of people all living in the same house for the first time in like 25 years. And then I've been there, although I went to Japan for a while. I've been taking little trips to like give her the house to herself a lot, but also like three dogs in her house is a lot too. So as sweet as they are, they can be loud.

Sure, absolutely. And you do plan on rebuilding, because it's, I mean, I know a number of people that, well, like one of my son's best friends, their house, they assumed their house was gone. Yeah. But then they days later went back and found out because it was near a gas station, it was like adjacent to a gas station. They were protecting the gas station and they got overspray and it saved their house, but they're like we may still not

You know it may be damaged so bad that it would you basically have to rebuild and they're not sure they Yeah, all your stuff is contaminated with a toxic smoke in a bizarre way It's almost easier to have had the total destruction because then there's no nothing for insurance no question You're like obviously it's yeah, right right have friends who the insurance company won't do anything and there's nothing for insurance to fight you on. You're like, obviously it's destroyed. But I have friends who the insurance company won't do anything, and there's this terrible state court decision recently that said smoke damage is not something that insurance companies are obligated to cover.

It's like the house is uninhabitable. There's smoke blowing through it for days and days and days of lead and asbestos and all that stuff, but they're like, sorry, go live there. So those people aren't even worse. Yeah, that seems like, well, I mean, the courts are great these days. Yeah, you can really rely on them. Yeah, yeah.

They've come in in the last decade. But I was, I just did this trip and I was in Kyoto and I was like, oh, I think my subconscious took me here because I was like, I wasn't planning on building a house from scratch anytime soon, but now that I am, I'm like, this is kind of a design aesthetic that I really identify with. Oh, in Kyoto?

Yeah, yeah. I like this city. Exactly. Yeah. Well, yeah, that's Kyoto. The reason Kyoto is so beautiful and so well-preserved is because according to somebody that I talked to, the general that was deciding where, because it was originally one of the cities that was supposed to be bombed Yeah with an atomic bomb and

One of the generals had honeymoon there Stimson. Yeah It's an Oppenheimer. I think Crossing this off the way. Yeah, like just talking We got on the podcast about you know, the types of trees that are planted sometimes without a lot of force you know, the types of trees that are planted sometimes without a lot of foresight into what the effects are gonna be with city planning. There's so many cities on earth, like Krakow and Kyoto, or just because one person was like,

I kinda like this city, I'm gonna ignore Hitler and not destroy it. Yeah, yeah, oh I know. Yeah. I know. And it's like, and then being in Japan and going to some cities, and I remember my son was kind of like, this town is like, it's all like 50s and ugly. And I like yeah there's a reason for that and it's sort of us

you know like yeah yeah high up in some of those buildings in Tokyo and like looking at the map of some of the the firebombers we did there it's just it's really mind-boggling and and the contrast is now when we have such great friendly relations and it's like that wasn't that long ago that it was like the worst conflict ever. No, absolutely. Yeah, that we were putting people in camps and stuff. Anyway, this is really fun chat.

A really fun chat. We're listening from Manzanar for this. Oh man. Now, this is your hometown. I mean, this is really home for you, which I find, you know, like you are a native in a way that not a lot of people are. It's funny, yeah.

It's so many people relocate here. And I did the opposite. I went to New York when I was 18 and lived there for about 15 years and then moved back like the day of the first lockdown for the pandemic. So I had an interesting like re-moving back to LA, being trapped in the house for a while.

But I've always loved this city and it's really intensified over the past couple of years now that I've lived here again. And all these crises happening just make it, you know, you really hold onto your city and your background a lot more. Yeah, yeah. And your dad, your dad was in show business, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it was kind of a family business, right? Yeah, he was an actor.

So it was kind of a family business, so it was sort of natural for you and your sister to... Yeah, and so it's funny that the incident that made it happen was such a random chance. I was shopping with my mom at IKEA in Burbank before they made the big new one over there, and there was a casting, these two women from a casting office taking Polaroids

of the kids who came in to be considered to be putting an audition. Creepy. Yeah, yeah, it's kind of amazing. The first time I ever said that out loud, I was like, huh, now I'm an adult. Sounds a little strange. But they took a Polaroid of me, we were going into IKEA.

I, we got a call, I went into a giant cattle call audition for a Pizza Hut commercial, did that commercial in Griffith Park, and shortly after that, when it aired, the casting director for Forrest Gump saw it and called me up and that was my first feature role and things just kind of snowballed from there. Wow, that's crazy. Yeah, very, very strange butterfly effect with that.

And your folks didn't have any qualms, or is it just because they knew enough about show business that they knew that they could keep you safe, basically? My dad mostly worked in theater, so they knew about the industry. They had a ton of qualms, actually, and probably still do. And I think that was a good thing, because they were very suspicious

of the show busy, part of Los Angeles. And when I was working early on, it was still a time before social media and like the 24 seven, immersion and all that stuff. So most of my experience with working was just being on the set and then going back to school and having a normal life.

And that was still a little bit more possible to separate those two things back when I was doing it in the 1900s. Yeah. So when you start acting, is this something that you had had in your head or was it just kind of like, oh, okay, this is, you know, I can do this, why not?

Yeah. Yeah, as a kid, I think you, you know, just adapt to whatever you're doing, you know, in the early stuff. How old were you? When they get that in the Ikea? At the Ikea you were four. Four years old.

So you don't even really know what's going on. No. I mean no offense. But four year olds are stupid. You're so dumb. You're so stupid at that age. Remember the director going like this because it's not very smart.

And it really had a big effect on me. But it takes a couple, you know, I think around the time of the sixth sense was when I was old enough to understand it more as a career as a craft. Although I did from the age of six, right up until the sixth sense, I did three multicam sitcoms and that was great training for comedy stuff and having a very regimented schedule and doing a live show every week. And what I learned from that experience still sticks with me today.

And my sister's on a multicam show now and it's a really fun thing to be a part of. Yeah. So that was good for me. And as far as show business goes, it's kind of easy. The hours are pretty nice. Yeah, yeah. As since I've been living at my sister's house,

there's been a lot of like, oh, you're home already. Oh, you're home again? I thought I was going to play Eldemay for another four hours. Aren't you on a TV show? Yeah. Uh, yeah, no, that was always, that was always like when, when like, you know, big stars of TV shows would be like, ah's getting to be rough. It's like, shut up. You know?

I'm gonna need a million dollars in it. It's been so many seasons. Yeah, yeah. Oh, my God. Especially now, when it's like, you did a show that lasted for more than two seasons? Yes. Congratulations.

Absolutely. -♪ -♪ Can't you tell my love's a-growing? And it's at a certain point, because you're in your career, Can't you tell my love's a grown man? And it's at a certain point, because you're in your career too, you acted young and then you went away to study. So you were kind of, you didn't like, we didn't have to see you age awkwardly. You had the good taste to go do that somewhere else.

I saved people from that. We did Second Hand Lions right at the beginning of pubertyty, and then I went away to a mountain fortress. Yes, yes. But it was in the Iron Mask in that movie. So yeah, not like the best business decision, as we know, as a stupid kid. Well, how long between, how long did you not like work in Hollywood kind of stuff? For like five years.

And then living in New York was still like, I continued to live there as an extension. I loved living in that city and was doing some theater. I remember I was doing a play in Philadelphia in 2011. I remember my agent at the time calling me and he's like, look, can you just like, can you move back to LA? And I was like, yeah, this is like,

following the artistic interest is not always the best business decision. But for me personally, I think that period allowed me to stay in love with acting. And I still really, really love my job. And even after this, you know, fire catastrophe, I was shooting this independent film called Love Love with Beck Bennett and Chris Elliott, and we were almost done.

And like the next day, we all, it was a small enough cast and crew, we were all like, yeah, we wanna finish this. And it's like, even in that experience, it was like, I still wanna go to work the next day. And like, it helps to be able to go and focus on something like that. So the day out on the whatever, the Wednesday, you went?

We drove to, we had some locations to shoot in the Palm Desert and the Salton Sea, and we're like, yeah, let's go out there and do it. Because, you know, a small budget film like that, you're like, you don't want to lose the opportunity to finish it. We really loved the movie. Oh, that's great. And you two, you've made, you get to do really cool stuff.

You know, I mean, you're not doing a bunch of shit too, which is amazing. And is that, is that part luck? Is that part being choosy? Is it, or is it a combination? Definitely a combination. Yeah, cause the choosiness, it's been really choosy at times that were you questioning, like, oh, should I just kind of like play ball with, you know, something that I don't like as much.

But now I'm at a place where I feel like it's really paid off and luck is definitely a part of it too. Yeah. Because it's, when I was coming up, part of my confidence in going to school and doing theater was like, well, there's always gonna be mid-budget independent films that we can do.

And the industry has changed really dramatically with that. And we were in a continuing process of contraction. So now, you know, it's always a miracle when a film gets made. Now it really feels like a miracle when something gets done. Yeah. And yeah, there's been a lot of stuff where I feel very lucky that I had worked on something with someone in the past and they think of me then and, you know, you get these calls where yeah, you feel very fortunate to be doing it.

Yeah. and you get these calls where, yeah, you feel very fortunate to be doing it. Do you remember moments from when you were a kid where you were just struck by the weirdness of show business or being around big stars? Was that weird? Were you aware of, oh, that's a gigantic movie star? Yeah, it was. Bruce Willis was, when I worked with Tom Hanks, I was still really young, so I knew that he was a big star

and I had seen him in movies, but I was a little bit older for Bruce's thing, and Bruce's whole demeanor was just the perfect person to be a movie star. He was so good at being a movie star. And you just learn a lot about someone like that who has just a ton of natural charisma, but they also just know how to use that

in a good way for the role and for, you know, the first time I went to Japan was with Bruce for the Sixth Sense press tour. And you're like, oh, this person has like really figured out how to do this really well. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But yeah, and I think it, in a way, it demystified celebrity for me,

meeting Steven Spielberg at 11 years old who directed all these movies that I love, and you're just like, oh, okay, now I know this person as a human being, and it kind of, yeah, it takes a lot of the mystery out of it in a good way, and you kind of are able to see people as people, I guess. Yeah, yeah. But is it, I mean...

Is it a dream shatterer? Like, is it too human? No one has been like... I've been really fortunate because a lot of people I've worked with have really entertaining stories about films that were disasters to work on or people who were a nightmare to work with. I really haven't had an experience like that.

Everybody's been pretty cool. And it's... a lot of the directors I've worked with too, where it's like nobody does that thing where, you know, you hear stories of directors trying to like manipulate a performance out of somebody or trying to sow chaos on a set to get people to react in a certain way. That sounds really entertaining to tell a story about, but a terrible work environment.

Right, exactly. Yeah. And I mean, have you been on many disastrous, you know, like, No. Disastrous sets, or you just been lucky, or? There's been some chaotic ones, but it's usually the elements.

I did this television movie with Tom Selleck in the 90s called Last Stand at Sabre River that had this incredible cast. All the Carradine brothers were in it. And Tom Selleck. Well, they had to be. There was a contractual. Yeah, they traveled as a team and a stagecoach.

Selecting a big stacked bunk bed. Exactly, yeah. Yeah, yeah. But this production, every single weather event that was possible happened. We had multiple sets destroyed. We had floods. We had lightning storms. We had multiple sets destroyed. We had floods. We had lightning storms.

We had a drought out in the desert. We were shooting. They fired the director and all the A.D.'s. The caterer was fired because one of the producers liked a special type of bluebell ice cream, and they didn't have it. We all watched this happen out on the prairie where he like, I think he like threw something to the ground. It was like, you're fired. Because they didn't have his ice cream the wrong ice cream

Those are crazy. Those are ones where you go back to the motel and sit around the pool. It was like I hope we're shooting this Yeah, this is gonna be really nuts. And like how old are you at that point? That would be nice I was like eight or nine. Wow there. Yeah. Yeah, that was a really fun Shoot and went to like Roswell, New Mexico with my dad in the Carlsbad Caverns. That was a really good location shoot. Was it usually with your dad? Yeah.

Yeah. My mom has been teaching sixth grade for 25, 30 years now. So she usually had to be around the home, but yeah, it's usually my dad going on the road. And was that good for your relationship? Oh yeah. Yeah. It's cool to have a shared interest with your dad.

You know, we also have golf. He's huge into golf, and we would do that on location a lot too. But to be really interested in acting and to be able to talk about that and for him to teach me everything he knew was just the most valuable resource I could have had in my career, and it still helps me today. When you started working without him, was that weird?

Like to start as a grownup? By that point, I was ready to- Because- Ditch the old man? It's really awesome to have somebody watching the monitor who's just helping you. The director's got a lot of things to focus on. So it was really great to have that third eye helping me. And then I wanted to test myself

to see if I could do it by myself. And that was, you know, also going to NYU and studying experimental theater was so different from the type of acting I've been doing before. And I was like, I wanna stretch myself in those ways too. Yeah. I wanted to ask about that, like to go from movie acting and TV acting which is pretty naturalistic

I mean is not other I mean, I guess there are some people that have Some kind of technique or process involved, but I think largely it's just like just act like a regular person You know, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And so when you before you went to acting school, were you like... Were you thinking like, oh, I need technique? Or was it just like, I wanna do this more, so I wanna kind of get deeper into it in a scholarly way? I do, and I... And still to this day, um...

I just know there's a lot more to learn about the different techniques and about... And acting on stage just in general is a really interesting challenge. Because even if you're doing something naturalistic, it's still in this environment where you have to hit the back wall with your voice and with your performance. But yeah, I just really wanted to try something new.

And then an added bonus was that I almost never worked with anybody my age. And then it went to all people my age. Oh, wow. And yeah, I didn't even, wouldn't even have thought about that. That was really cool to have people where you have shared experiences and at an age where it's, and I knew I just wanted to go to college at that age too.

You can always go back to school, but like being 18 and moving away from your home for the first time is just a really special time in everybody's life and you get to see all these people moving there from all over the country and like becoming themselves that way for the first time. It was a really fantastic experience. But it wasn't like you were without kids because you went to regular school too, didn't you? Yeah, and I wanted to go to college but there was definitely a you are going to college

from both my parents. Yeah so that was definitely gonna happen. But yeah, going to a normal elementary school and high school, that really helped because most of my friends, almost all my friends were not involved in the industry at all. And you still have a lot of those friends, right? Yeah, yeah. One of the best traditions that we have

is a lot of high school friends. We go to the Dodger Spring Training in Phoenix on February, March, and that's a really fun one. Like how many of you? There have been years where it's like 15, 20 people. And now it's people's spouses and like there's a second Airbnb for people with small children.

It's really mushroomy. You wanna get those people out of the way. Yeah. Get those kids out of the way. Although now I'm in an age where it's like, I wanna be in the quiet house. Like I don't wanna sleep on a pool table anymore. I wanna be sleeping in a bed like an adult.

Then we just, somebody sent to the group chat a picture of my friend. We had gotten a, like a party bus, but just to like sit in the parking lot of the Dodger Spring training game and play wiffle ball. And there's a picture of my friend, the guy shows up the house and he's like, all right, where are we going today?

You're like, just over there. We're just gonna drive across the street and play wiffle ball. And he's like, awesome. He just sat in the chair. I'm like, shit. So I imagine these trips were less about baseball and more about-

It's about baseball. It is? Keeping score to spring training games. Even while fucked up? Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Sober or not.

Yeah. It's just that environment, because it's just practice for them is so relaxing. Yeah. When I'm thinking of something to calm my mind, just walking around those practice fields, it's just like, I'm so relaxed. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. ["Can't You Tell My love's a-growing? Shannon Woodward was in yesterday. And I always am like, because I feel like just whenever, like the notion of like a child actor, or sometimes being around a child actor, like on the Conan show, like a very young person that's starting out in the business, and there's a part of him that's like,

I wanna protect you. Like, oh, you're worth it. I feel that too now when you see kids on set. Yeah. I haven't, you know, the kids I've worked with seem like they're coming from a good family situation, everything, but it does, yeah, you do have this protective feeling come up because of...

Why do you think that, like, for you, why do you think that, like for you, why do you think that comes from? What is it that you've experienced that gives you that sort of worry? It's not, I guess it's not worry so much is that I had a great experience and I wanna make that possible for somebody on the set too.

I see. And I had so many people who went out of their way to help me and to, I mean, like Bruce Willis, who would like, not only do off-camera stuff, obviously, but would like really work with me at night to try and help get the right performance out. And everything really took a deep interest and involvement in helping a 10-year-old try and do his job.

At this Paley Fest thing we were doing for Poker Face, Natasha Leone said a really nice thing about the scenes that we had in the show, where she's like, so you know, those of us who grew up acting young, there's just a little unspoken thing where like you just have this understanding with each other. And I was like, yeah, I felt that too.

Like we both had this shared experience that's, it's almost hard to put into words, but like, yeah, it's a cool little connection that you can have. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. What do you think, I mean, is it just your parents that sort of made you avoid disaster? You know, whether it does, and I don't even mean like, you know, like flame out drug problems. I mean like having so much fun and success and money early and then the rest of your life feeling anticlimactic.

Absolutely, yeah. I think that is a big risk with that. With anything, with the people who excel in sports or something like that too, there's a big risk of having that anticlimax. But just because of the nature of my job, I just love that every day I go to work, there's something new for me to learn.

So whether it's a big successful show or a not successful show, the work itself is still this puzzle that I wanna try and solve every time, and that makes it rewarding. But yeah, and I think that's definitely something my dad instilled in me. And then my mom was definitely the most suspicious

of the industry and the one still saying, like, you can still be a veterinarian when I'm like 17 years old. What I had said when I was growing up past the sixth sense and everything was that I was gonna go study to be a marine biologist. And I was doing an episode of Ali McBeal where I played a cancer patient.

So this guy was putting a bald cap on me every day. And I mentioned to him that I wanted to be a, the makeup artist, I wanted to be a marine biologist. He's like, you don't wanna be a marine biologist. I was like, why? He's like, I studied that. They send you all these animal parts, you put them in a blender and then you analyze them.

You think you'd be swimming with dolphins, but you're just analyzing guts of blood. Fish guts. I was like, wow, that's good to know. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

That's great. You saying that about cancer patients just reminds me of... Because there's two things about Conan history that you play in, which is one is the best Walker, Texas Ranger clip ever, which, look it up, the punchline is, Walker says I have AIDS. And it's delivered, it is the definition of a non sequitur. I'm just like, it's like, this kid,

like what the fuck are you talking about kid? What made you think of that? You know? That, when Conan started doing that, we weren't allowed to watch a lot of television in those school years, so when people would bring it up at school and there's no YouTube or anything, I didn't know what, I didn't understand

what they were talking about for the longest time. And it was so funny when I finally saw a clip of it, and it's the keyboard cat too, right? Yeah. Something like that. Yeah. It was so funny to me because I had no context for what was happening.

Yeah. It involved the very special double episode of Walker Tech. Yeah, yeah. No, it was played at the Twain Prize in DC. Oh really? Oh my God. You made a cameo in the Twain Prize in DC.

That is amazing. Yeah. That was amazing. Yeah. That was crazy doing the Walker Show and I was really pumped to do it because Brian James played this from Blade Runner. Yeah, yeah. I loved Blade Runner. I worked with him on Cabin Boy.

Oh, oh you were Cab Boy, that's right. Yeah. That's awesome. He was a really great actor. He was hilarious too. He told me once, I did a movie down in the swamps of the bayous of Louisiana called Southern Comfort. It's a Powers Booth movie.

It's a really awesome action movie in the bayous. He goes like, and I had a bad cocaine problem, but I had to hide it had to, he said I had to hide it in order to get down there because they said the cops are tough. Said, so I put it all in film cans and then taped them up with electrical tape and I made bandoleros of cocaine. And I measured it out to how many days I'd be shooting and how much I'd need.

Oh my God. I gotta watch that movie now. I remember Edward James Olmos telling me, and I have racked up, I've worked with almost the entire surviving Blade Runner cast. Very excited about that. Not Harrison Ford yet though. But Edward James Olmos told me on this movie we're making

that they went through something like 85 first 80s on Miami Vice Because they would just fall victim to the Miami lifestyle and you know first 80s a stressful job to begin with Yeah, a lot of drugs on that. Oh, I I'm so I mean, I'm so glad that I I mean, I I mean I've tried cocaine, but I don't like cocaine But I still just like knowing me, if I'm around a bunch of people taking a drug, I'll be like, well, all right. So I'm so lucky that I missed the cocaine years of show business.

Because when I started doing film production in Chicago on commercials, it had just kind of passed through the advertising industry. I would hear stories of just a couple years before where if like Montgomery Wards wanted to do a commercial, part of what was understood was that there'd be a lot of cocaine on set. And it was up to the production company to provide the cocaine.

And like one producer told me, we used to hide, we'd either hide it in the dolly package, you know, which is the camera dolly, he said, or in wigs and mustaches. He said often if there's on our, and there they just filled it out by hand, the budgets. He said if it was wigs and mustaches, that was cocaine. So.

Who was anybody hiding it from at that point? I don't know. I don't know. Well, and it'd be like, and it's amazing to me too that like to be like, you don't know. Well, and it'd be like, and it's amazing to me too that like to be like, you know, a Pepsi executive and show up and be like, where's the fucking cocaine? Like, you're a soda pop executive, you know?

Oh, but anyway, and the other Conan one that you're, that I mean, you've featured vaguely is that I once, it was like a year after The Sixth Sense was on and I was like talking kind of obliquely about spoilers and I said, I said, it's, you know, like when you find out Bruce Willis is dead. Oh! And people flip the fuck out.

But I was like, it's been out for a year. Yeah. Like what the, like Norman Bates is his mother too, by the way. Yeah. And I'm like, it's been out for a year. Like what the, like Norman Bates is his mother too, by the way, you know, like fucking relaxed, but people were fucking pissed. I was walking through the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, right at the end of Breaking Bad. Breaking Bad spoilers are coming.

And I've been 10 years. Yes, yes. But we're walking through the the concourse and earlier that day I'd been at like a barbecue with my friend and my friend had announced to the whole barbecue that Hank dies and a lot of people hadn't seen it and it was a big thing. Everybody was really mad at my friend. Yeah. Then we're walking through the concourse around thousands of people at Barclays and my friend goes, hey Haley remember when I told you that Hank was dead? And the whole congregation goes, no! Stop it!

Yeah, see that's trolling. That's a very dangerous level of trolling to do that. The guy who drove her a car around LA when the Force Awakens came out that said Han Solo dies in the Force Awakens. That was pretty funny. Oh, that is pretty funny. Yeah. When you, was it hard for you to go away?

I know I'm hopping all over the place chronologically, but it's just as questions are occurring to me. But like when you went away to school, were you a little bit worried about getting off the Hollywood train for a few years or? I probably should have been more career conscious. I was so excited to move to New York and to dive into there. And I had such a good time in college and studying theater. Even for a couple years after college,

I was avoiding coming back to LA, because I just love that city. Those years were a little bit more, it's kind of mellow, I don't, just from my experience, it feels like it's kind of mellowed out with like paparazzi TMZ stuff. There used to be a lot more like in-person stuff wherever you'd go in LA.

That really turned me off of LA for a while. And in New York, that didn't happen. You could just be a lot more anonymous there. Just this past trip going to Japan, I was just loving like, you know, being in a place like that, where people aren't, you know, paying as much attention to you is a really fun experience. Because I like that not just because of privacy, but as an actor, you want to be able to observe

people. If you're the one people are looking at at different places, like it kind of interferes with your ability to get intel, I guess. But I love New York so much, and those years in college were great because not only were you with your friends all the time, you're traveling, you're studying this great stuff for the first time, but I remember being aware of it at the time, it was like, these are the good years. Knowing maybe in a way that the period we're living through

now is so fucking horrible that you're like, the good years, you know, enjoy the years because you can kind of draw on that in the future when your house burns down and we go to war with every country on earth at the same time. With Greenland. Yeah. Is, when you said earlier about like, you know, that there's, acting is still a challenge and there's still new things you want to do, can you typify sort of like, you know, that there's acting is still a challenge and there's still new things you want to do.

Can you typify sort of like what you still sort of have difficulty with? Like is there like heavy drama, playing, you know, big character kind of things? A cool thing about getting older, and it's sad that it's such a, so different for men and women because as I get older, like my role,

the things I can play broaden. It's really unfair that that doesn't happen for everybody. But as a man, you like, there's a lot of stuff out there for like playing now getting closer to a middle-aged person or playing some with children or being divorced or something like that. I mean, it is, it's true. It's like, you know, like I would never have,

being just like the sort of, you know, analogous physicality, if I were female, I would never have worked as much as I did. And, you know, tough titty ladies, that's all I wanna say. No, I'm just kidding. No, I mean, I don't know what to do about it. You know, I mean, then to be a good person and, you know... I do, um, I really want to write and direct.

I'm on that path to try and get stuff developed. The pandemic, the strikes, and the fires have really been obstacles recently, but I'm working on it. I don't even, I'm not even trying to develop now. It's bleak time out there. Yeah, no, I mean, because after the Conan show ended in 21,

I was pushing and pushing and pushing, and I just started to feel bad. I just started to feel like I was a salesman and nobody wanted to buy any of my products. So I was like, you know what, fuck it. I'll just, I'll do whatever people call me to do. And podcast. Yeah, it's a beautiful studio. Yes, oh yes. You know, I'll do whatever people call me to do. And podcast.

It's a beautiful studio. But there is opportunity. It's so frustrating that things are still so regressive when it comes to like diversity and who's hired and the stories that are being told. Because you're like, there's opportunity there. So there's, you know, that lack of opportunity that's given to certain people.

You're like, those are stories you can tell. And not just trying to hit some benchmark for how many people are included. It's like you want to tell stories that are about people that don't get a shot at that. And it's a shame that the industry has kind of, I feel like after 2017, everything has kind of fallen back in the opposite direction when it comes to that stuff. Now, diversity is under attack in such a profound way. It's a little depressing. Yeah. It's like a pendulum though, but it can't.

It can't be like this. It can't be. It just can't. It makes sense. It's like people need to learn to share. It's all basic preschool to learn to share. That's the, you know, it's all basic preschool stuff. And there's just like people were being forced to share. And then a bunch of people were like, no! Yeah.

And now they're all shitting their diaper. Some literally. And it's gonna, you know, and it's not gonna last. It's like no one's gonna, I mean, please say it's not gonna last. Please, universe. How is everybody not just exhausted? I'm so tired by all this stuff. I don't even, I know, it is.

And I've talked about it before. I was just talking to Shannon, the third question of this is what have you learned? And she just was like, read books. Oh my God, now I was gonna say the same thing. Oops, think of a new one. But I was telling her how like, that was a big, for me, that was a big thing with the election,

was like, well, I'm not gonna spend as much time absorbing consuming news information slash entertainment. I'm gonna read some books. Yeah. Because I wasn't reading enough. And so I've kind of like done that. And, but I still, and I know there's a part of it that, like the reason that they carpet bomb you with bullshit, with like just one terrible initiative after the other is because then you feel helpless. Yeah.

You're like, well, I can't process all this at once, so I'm gonna tune out. I know that I'm falling prey to one of their techniques, but I'm sorry, I can't. I gotta give yourself a break. I think I was, I got off Twitter finally, my life has definitely improved as a result of not being there anymore,

but it would be a lot easier for me to maintain that kind of like going through the day, not getting into every disturbing story. If I wasn't getting 50 texts an hour going, Social Security is dead. I am weeping. I am sobbing. If you don't give me $3, I can't stop thinking about it. It's so crazy. Who did I... I really want to know where I, without thinking, put in my cell phone number when I donated or something years ago that is now the cause of... They sell it to everybody else too, you know?

I mean, I don't know, yeah, I don't know where they get it. But I always, with all of that, it's always a stop. Just an automatic stop and delete report junk, which I don't know if that works. I feel like sometimes stop, they're like, oh, so there's a person on the end of that. Yeah, but I'd rather stop. Please stop.

I'd rather stop. You really have been afforded a really fun life, and especially now, you know, like, are you single right now? Single right now, yeah. Yeah, yeah, so I mean, you do, like, was the trip to Japan just, like, a pleasure trip? It was, I went, like, a week there without, like, speaking, which was nice, like, it's been a very, fortunately,

extremely busy, like, last year, and I was on the road shooting stuff for a while. That was all really fun, but it nice. Like, it's been a very, fortunately, extremely busy, like, last year. And I was on the road shooting stuff for a while. That was all really fun. It was very busy. And then with the fire stuff, it's been just a lot. And this was just like a, like, sort of a decompression thing of just, I just need to, like, try and clear my mind for a little bit.

It was also to see the Dodgers play in Tokyo. Oh, all right, all right. That was the initial, initial thing for the trip, which was an awesome experience. Are you a season ticket holder? No, I still, I should do the math. Like I still just buy a ticket like on my way to the game. And you can usually, the stadium's so big,

you can usually find a pretty good deal. Yeah, no, that's, I mean, well, I, you know, it's, I couldn't, like managing a season ticket thing would just be, you know, it's, I couldn't, like, managing a season ticket thing would just be, you know, it's why so, in addition to being, you know, like financially staggering, it's then, you know, that's why so many people split them up and it's just like, I don't, I just, I'd rather like, you know, just buy a ticket

and it's still outrageous. You know, I'm going to see the Cubs, the Cubs are coming in a little bit. And I bought a couple of tickets and I still like, they're not great and it's still 200 bucks a seat, you know? And I bought them for, you know, I didn't even buy them. I didn't scalp, get them scalped, you know, they got them just straight off the MLB. And it is, it's crazy how much it costs,

but it really is fun. It sure is good and they're're good now and yeah fun to watch I am I I've never been to Wrigley They're gonna go to Wrigley at the end of the month. I'm thinking about going to see him there Yeah, it's it's almost like an OCD thing I have that like a big poster where you scratch off with a coin like the different stadiums you've seen I was like this year I'd really like to scratch some of those off. Oh really? Yeah. Yeah. Then they throw in a little bit of a lotto in there too.

Yeah. You can win $500. Yeah. You get the feeling that you're at 7-Eleven trying to win some money. You ever get one of those scratches where the game is too complicated? Oh, fuck yes.

Like the crossword as a crossword. I know what's happening. I don't know, I don't. And then you have to read tiny print on the back to too complicated. Oh, fuck yes. Like the crossword, I was like, I don't know what's happening. Like I don't know, I don't, and then you have to read tiny print on the back to figure out like, how do I, just, and you know the thing is, is like, there's probably one number at the bottom or a barcode and you can just scratch that off

and they can tell you, yeah, you win four bucks. Yeah. You know, like there's no, it's, yeah. Scratchers people, stay away. Well, you get to have, I mean, you have like so much fun. There's gotta be like, you know, times where you just feel like pinching yourself. Absolutely. Yeah, yeah.

I've been very, very lucky. And you know, I'm liking your job where like the hardest I work is still something that's really fun for me. Yeah, yeah. It's really, there's a lot of things that are frustrating about this industry and the unpredictability is really crazy. It makes it hard to plan things in your life.

And with things like relationships, like it's hard to focus on that sometimes because you just don't know where you're going to be physically most of the day of the year. And has that been a sort of a problem in relationships? It has been, or it's been periods where it's like, I don't, you know, focus on it as much as like, and that's an important thing to have in your life. And, you know, trying to date outside of the industry, and then you're like, I'm dating another actor again.

Yeah. And I think it's understandable that people are in relationships within the industry because only somebody who's in it can really understand the weird shit that you have to do. Yeah, it would be hard to tell a nurse, I'm going away for three months. Yeah.

I love you, don't do anything. I feel so stupid. So I was like, you know, with their wedding, and you're like, I think I can come. Like, I should be able to come. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, no, that's, I feel, one of the things I feel lucky about is like the 11 years that Conan was on TBS, because that was like my kid's childhoods, you know? Wow. I mean, I was able, I lived 10 minutes away from the studio and was home every night for dinner, and that's like, there's people. When I was doing the first show that I moved out here to do, it was a single camera show.

And there were days where, and my son was only about like a year and a half old, and I would go like sometimes four or five days without seeing him awake. Oh, wow. Because I would leave before he woke up and I'd come home after he was asleep. And that year after year would be pretty, I don't, you know.

I'm just really glad that I never had to sort of deal with that because I've known people that have had to deal with that with kids, you know? Yeah. It's really a challenge. Are kids something you would want to have? I've gone back and forth. I'm open to it. And then the times where I've most felt like, oh, I want to be in a relationship, you know, where that would happen. It like, there were acts of God that like felt like a punishment for trying to be

dead. Like all this shit that's happened recently with like the pandemic. It's always been when I feel domestic is like, oh, you don't have a house anymore. Maybe I'll just say, fuck it. Like, but now it's also like the state of the world is really troubling. And just like the reliance on just like basic aspects of society that you assume would be there

that might not now in the next couple of years. I know, I know. There's definitely some more information I need before I would feel confident having kids. But a lot of my friends got married and had children during the pandemic. And that was like a really nice, it's a optimistic thing to have children.

It is, it is. Cause people will say that like, I wouldn't want to bring children into this world. And I kind of think, there's been really shitty times in the world and it didn't, you know. And it is kind of like, well, you're gonna make, ideally, you're gonna make a good person.

So it's like, you're gonna be helping with solutions. You know, whole ideal, like I say. Like, you might have an asshole, you don't know. How many people do you think went on first dates to, uh, we need to talk about Kevin in theaters? I went on a last date with a girlfriend to Taxi to the Dark Side, which is about like, America's like, torture in Afghanistan.

I was like, this is a good movie to watch at the end of this relationship. Oh my God, did you know it was over when you... No, but afterwards, I think it put us in the mood to have that conversation. Speaking of torture, when do you think you're... No, but afterwards I think it put us in the mood to have that conversation. Speaking of torture, when do you think you're gonna start rebuilding? Now, well the process has started.

Oh yeah. I've been really, I guess pleasantly surprised is the right word for it. There's some environmental concerns because they're not testing the soil and the air, so I don't know about that. But I mean, do you have an architect that like, yeah, oh that's great. Yeah, I've got an architect, they're in testing the soil in the air. I don't know about that. But I mean, do you have an architect that like, yeah, that's great.

Yeah, I've got an architect. They're in the process now of removing debris in my neighborhood. So the cleanup is going to take a long time. Our street is a bunch of really great people that we're all talking and once we all get on the same part of the process, we think it'll speed things along with getting, you know, the bearing power lines. And I think there's gonna be maybe a sewer connection. There's all this stuff that needs to happen, but everybody's been a really good team about it.

I'm hopeful that in a number of years, we'll be able to go back there. And that will be, I'd imagine the feeling of walking back into a house there in some number of years from now, how crazy that will be. Yeah, yeah. I also, my dad and I are talking about how both of us locked the door, the front door, leaving.

I was like, that's such a funny thing that you do. Even knowing it's the last time. Yeah, yeah. When you left, did you think like, this is it? I was 50-50, because going through that neighborhood now, it just blows your mind. It's like after a tornado where there's one house, like untouched, not burned at

all. And then almost sadder down, uh, down the hill more, there's places where every house is standing and just one house burned down. And you know, it's just the randomness of it was really crazy. So I was 50 50 most of the night, but was prepared to lose it. And then I went the very next morning and was driving the neighborhood, which was an experience I'll never forget, because it just looked like like a bombing had happened. Wow.

The fire had already completely moved through. They weren't keeping people out. You were able to sneak through. I really will be interested to see if there's ever an investigation about what the planning was. Yeah. There wasn't a lot of firefighting or any firefighting in Altadena the night of.

There's a lot of questions about that. Yeah. Yeah. Just not that I want to blame anybody. It's just like, it was mind blowing because particularly my parents' house was on a big street where I was like, oh, well, this will be where they set up a perimeter.

Nobody ever came. Wow. And especially for those people who didn't get evacuation notices and who passed away, it's a definitely, I think, an important question. My family at school, uh's definitely, I think, an important question. Yeah, no, my family at school that lost their house knocked on their elderly neighbor's door and woke them up and said, hey, you better,

and they didn't get any like notification at all. And that just seems like- People, yeah, who don't, you know, elderly people who don't have like cell phones or are not checking the internet every five minutes. Yeah, I can imagine there are people who had no idea it was happening, but it's so funny. I remember my thought process before I saw the fire was like, oh, the power's probably going to go out tonight. Like I was doing like errands for and got to have like

flashlights and stuff. And then the night turned very quickly. Yeah. Wow. What do you think the best and worst parts of what you do for a living and, you know, the way you've gotten to where you are? They're really interconnected because I get to do a huge variety of different jobs and go to a lot of different places. Because you're a character actor, which is like, to me, that's like, that's the best. Yeah, it's fun to be, yeah.

You get a whole smorgasbord of different roles that you get to play and looks that you get to do. So that variety is really stimulating, but it does make for a very unpredictable life. And I keep thinking that I've figured out what to do to have a little bit more of a predictable life and I haven't been able to crack it yet. It's really getting on one of those shows. Like, my sister's on a sitcom right now,

and I was like, you're very lucky to have this job where you can plan out your year. Right, and if it lasts, then you get such a nice, comfortable cushion of money, you know? Yeah, it's a good gig. So yeah, they're interconnected. And then with being someone in the public eye,

I've had like crazy opportunities and have met so many people who are heroes of mine and got to work with people who are big heroes of mine. And the trade-off is you don't get to ever be anonymous anymore. But it's interesting because now everybody kind of has that experience, like with the way that social media and like intrusion of technology into our lives, it's like everybody kind of has a experience. Like with the way that social media and like intrusion of technology into our lives,

it's like everybody kind of has a weird shared experience like that. And a lot of, I think the intensity of like tabloid and paparazzi stuff has been lessened because everybody gives up their lives for free now on these things. Yeah. Well, and also too, there's like a lot of,

a lot of really famous people that are, you know, most people I have no reason to know of. You know, like I've been places like with, you know, with my kids and they'll be like, oh my God, you know, that's Jared Gerbler. And it's like, what? And they're like, they have 12 million followers. And I'm like, oh, okay. You know?

And so I think it's probably hard for the paparazzi to know like who's famous and who's not anymore, I guess, I don't know. Yeah, people can completely run their own celebrity enterprise. Yeah, it's weird. It is weird like the, like how to manage how much of yourself to put out there.

And I don't wanna do do anything in a calculated way. It's a nice thing also, cause I refused to go on social media all throughout college, and that was kind of a mistake because people would make fake accounts, and it was very easy to do that. So now it's almost like just a safety thing of going like,

this is actually what's happening. Yeah, yeah. You sent me nudes while you were in college. I know, I know. You were good, good nudes. I got them too. And that was before AI too, that was all real. Oh yeah.

Are you comfortable with the level of fame that you have? I mean, if something happened, you know, if you got on a big hit show and then you became a household name and everybody knew your face, would that be okay? I do think about that because I am really happy with it now because it isn't too intense. And if your dream comes true

and you do get a crazy action movie or a big series or something like that, that changes. But I'm prepared for that if it were to happen, you know? And I think I've had weirdly a lot of practice with it at different levels and at different points in history. Yeah, it's not an arrogant thing to say because it is a real positive. It's like you work a lot and you've been a known quantity

for a long time, so yeah, it could. But that's why I asked it because it is kind of like, you know, it's a trade off. I'm in my late 30s now, I'm turning 37 in a couple of weeks. I like that a lot of things, I've aged out of what things are aimed at. There's younger generations now that are like, the Coachella lineup is for a 19-year-old. Yes, yes. I'm like, oh nice.

I like these, you know, it's not going to be really hard to get tickets for certain bands that I like, because it's just my stuff. Right, right, right. I like kind of being out of the fire of being that age. Oh my God, I'm 58 and I look at Coachella lineup and I'm like, I don't know a fucking name on the thing. It's like I don't know any, I mean, maybe one or two, but it's like, no, music has passed me by. And you're a huge music fan.

You're a avid, you travel and keep up. That was another thing that really kept me in New York for a long time, is because you see a great show like every single night of the week. I mean, theater too. Yeah. Well, yeah, I went to the Dungeon Game

last yesterday afternoon and then saw this band, Beak, which I highly recommend. They were at Zebulon last night. So still out there, still out there seeing shows. No, you're not old. That's, that's, that to me, that's like, oh my God, that sounds too much. What advice would you have to somebody out there

about like what you've learned with your life? That wouldn't necessarily have to be, you know, like acting wise, just, you know. I'm very offended that Shannon took my advice from me. Oh, boy. Because I was sitting in the car the other day, and I was like, it's that thing where you're like, it's so obvious, I'm in a better mood, and it's better if I just read books

and don't scroll through my phone. Yeah. Like, it's this realization that you have every so often. Yeah. Don't always do anything about it, but this year I'm really trying and it's like just reading helps everything. It just helps with writing and with acting. It's just like there's so much to know out there and I love that I get to really tangle with that in my job. And then for anybody acting, like people do ask a lot. I love it like film festivals, whenever there's like Q and A's.

I don't really know why we do Q and A's a lot of these things. Like they don't always seem like a good idea, but someone's like, how do I break into the industry? And I would love to say like, don't, we're full. Like don't, yeah, there's enough competition now. But you know, acting is wonderful. And I have been able to go through periods of, you know, having success with roles and periods of not having success with roles because just the

day-to-day shooting and building characters is number one for me. And like if it ever turns into, and I know that like people don't really have a choice but to focus a lot on the self-promotion aspect of it, just to break in and have those opportunities. But when that becomes more important than the job, then it's just not fun anymore. So if you do wanna do it for your whole life, that has to be the most important thing

and you have to be happy doing it for an audience of one or two people or for something that's a big smash and gets seen by millions of people. Yeah, that was something I kind of early on learned, like almost kind of from Conan in many ways, but also other people that if you're, if you're, if you, the thing that you're like,

your real motivation and you're real is like a thing, like a job, like, you know, like for Conan, it was like hosting a late night talk show. And there was, I think there was so much energy that he had put into his life to getting to that point, that once he'd gotten it, it's like, your body is still this kind of stress factory that's still producing this, but you're there.

Like you made it, you're supposed to relax. So I kind of like, just from watching him with that, I was like, I think it's better to kind of make your aim a process. Yeah. You know, like sort of like, I wanna see how far I can push this, whether whatever this is, you know? Yeah.

Or, you know, I wanna be as good at this as I can. Yeah. Or, you know, I like for me, it's just to do this as long as I can until I'm, you know, my knees hurt too bad. Absolutely, same. I remember like some of the happiest days I've ever had was doing some random project for theater school of like just get interested in some weird detail and just try and make something out of that and like that is the best that's the

best stuff right there. Yeah. And sometimes really big ideas come from like that stupid day ofreaming, you know, trying to make something out of that. But yeah, it's a really cool job that we get to do. Oh wait, I rolled up my notes, but I gotta plug things for you here. Yeah. Oh, you're gonna be in Wednesday.

That's right, yeah. Oh, that's a fun show. Got to work with Tim Burton. That was really crazy. That's like in Ireland or something, isn't it? How long were you there? I had never been to Ireland. I was there for like three weeks. Oh, nice.

And that was awesome. That's awesome. Oh, you've been cast in Kiki Palmer's The Burbs based on the movie, I guess. Yeah, and we're shooting it on the same back lot sets that they use for the movie, which is really neat. Oh, that's really fun. And you're gonna be in Poker Face,

which I'm really, I'm just mad at you for this. I wanna be in Poker Face. You gotta get on that, yeah. I know, come on, Natasha. Well, I've known Natasha for a million years, and like we were in, the way that you have, you share childhood actors, she and I share a scary movie too.

Oh yeah? Oh yeah, that's right. Cause she was the exorcist, she was Reagan, uncredited she was in that, she was a parent, I don't know why. That's great. Yeah, but that's always been fun. Wow. Yeah. Well, Haley, thank you so much for coming in.

Thank you for having me, it's great talking to you. And it was great talking to you, and it's like, that's one of the nice things about this is I get to have people that I'm friends with and then ask them questions that I'd be uncomfortable. And it would feel weird. You know, this is gonna be the level of golf car conversation now.

If I hang out with you, I'd be like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Do you think you missed out? Why not? You know? All right. All right, All right. I'll be back next week with more of The Three Questions.

Thanks for listening. The Three Questions with Andy Richter is a Team Cocoa production. It is produced by Sean Doherty and engineered by Rich Garcia. Additional engineering support by Eduardo Perez and Joanna Samuel. Executive produced by Nick Leow, Adam Sacks, and Jeff Ross. Talent booking by Paula Davis, Gina Battista, with assistance from Maddie Ogden. Research by Alyssa Grahl.

Don't forget to rate and review and subscribe to The Three Questions with Andy Richter wherever you get your podcasts. And do you have a favorite question you always like to ask people? Let us know in the review section. Can't you tell my love's a-growing? Can't you feel it ain't a-showing? people, let us know in the review section.